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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Politics baby

Right now, its election time in Spain. Although elections generally get a lot of public attention no matter what country you're in (and even more in the US). However, with 5 million people unemployed and one of the worst economies in the EU, elections are kind of a big deal this year.

Here in Spain the parties are not allowed to campaign until 2 weeks before the elections which is actually pretty refreshing. Elections will be November 20th and last Monday the ONLY debate in the entire campaign took place. It was between the 2 candidates for the 2 major Spanish parties. First up there is the incumbent party, PSOE(otherwise known as the socialist party). Things aren't looking so good for PSOE seeing as they have been in power for the entirety of la crisis and many people blame them for how bad the situation has gotten. The man that's stepping up to the plate is Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.

He's got quite a job trying to win the election and most people (myself included) think that PSOE is on its way out. While I can't blame Spaniards for wanting a change in party, I think the economic crisis runs much deeper.

The other major party is the more conservative Partido Popular or PP. Their candidate is Mariano Rajoy and they are almost certain to win by a landslide.

On Monday, both candidates met for a simple debate about the economy, public healthcare and education, and the state of the country. While it was a little on the boring side and Rajoy hardly looked up from his notes, (many times I got lost/zoned out for one minute and had no idea what they were talking about), it was nice to have a debate without all the hype and glitz. Only one week until elections and people are very excited to vote this year. I guess that's one good part about being in an economic crisis.